Delhi Metro goes driver-less, first train capable of running without a driver comes from South Korea

New Delhi: The Delhi Metro on Thursday received its first train which is capable of running without a driver.

Manufactured at Changwan in South Korea, the new-age train that arrived at the Mukundpur depot here will eventually run unattended, guided by Delhi Metro’s operations control centres, a statement said.

The train arrived by sea at the Mundhra port in Gujarat and was brought to Delhi by road.

Delhi Metro bagged a green certificate for eco- friendly initiatives-all its major buildings and installations.

For following green building norm, Delhi Metro’s newly-opened Jahangirpuri-Samaypur Badli section and the Receiving Sub-Station (RSS) at Mukundpur Depot have received the highest platinum rating by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC).

The corporation achieved the target of generating 20 MW of solar power by the year 2017 by adding another 2.6 MW of solar power facilities across the Metro network.

Delhi, August 3, 2017: The Delhi Metro bagged a green certificate at 2nd National Conference on Green Metro systems, Metro Bhavan on 28 July for eco- friendly initiatives-all its major buildings and installations.

For following green building norm, Delhi Metro’s newly-opened Jahangirpuri-Samaypur Badli section and the Receiving Sub-Station (RSS) at Mukundpur Depot have received the highest platinum rating by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). The IGBC formulated a rating mechanism for metro stations and buildings- platinum, gold, silver, etc., to encourage them to follow green building specifications. The DMRC headquarters at Metro Bhavan received a gold rating for maintaining green building norms and Platinum ratings were also awarded to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) residential Complex metro enclave at Saket.

Delhi Metro get’s a green certificate. pixabay

The corporation achieved the target of generating 20 MW of solar power by the year 2017 by adding another 2.6 MW of solar power facilities across the Metro network. At the conference, Dr. Prem C. Jain, chairman, Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), said, “Delhi Metro is the first to become a green Metro. The platinum ratings that they have got are hard-earned and a lot of toils has gone into the process.”

The conference was attended by delegates from all other Metro systems in the country, who discussed a range of issues regarding successful adoption of green technologies for planning, constructing and operating Metro systems. According to Delhi Metro’s official site, DMRC Managing Director Mangu Singh said, “The country’s energy consumption has increased by 700 per cent in the last four decades. This will increase three times more by 2030. One of the major users of energy is the transport sector, especially urban transport. Therefore, it is very relevant to focus on Metro systems and talk of green Metro.” Our country’s transport sector plays a crucial role in the implementation and promotion of environment-friendly and sustainable practices. The role of Indian Railway is particularly important as it’s one of the most extensive railway networks in the world.

DMRC became the first railway project in the world to be registered by the United Nations under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in 2008, which enabled it to claim carbon credits. Then, in 2015, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) registered DMRC as the world’s first transport sector project under the Program of Activities (PoA), made it the managing entity for all other Metros of India.

AK Gupta, Director (Electrical), DMRC, and the Chairman of the conference, also highlighted the corporation’s green achievements.

– prepared by Kritika Dua of NewsGram. Twitter @DKritika08

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The ‘comfort women’ system was started by the Japanese before and during World War II

Little girls and women were forced into military brothels known as “comfort station”

The Chinese government has not done enough in respect to this issue as compared to its South Korean counterpart

New Delhi, July 22, 2017: There exists an empty building on Ganging road with window frames painted red and it is one of the pre-world war II buildings in Shanghai. Sources reveal, it was once a military brothel and accommodates dark memories. It is amongst the comfort stations where a wide sexual slavery system was started by the Japanese for their armed forces during and before the time of world war II.

There were once more than 150 comfort stations in Shanghai alone, but these buildings are disappearing due to rapid development, demolishing historical remains.

Only a handful of these comfort women are still alive and they do not receive any assistance from the government. These women are 90-year-olds, covered with scars and some of them do not even have any family or children. An estimated 200,000 women, many of them mere girls from Asian countries are believed to have been forcefully employed in these Japanese brothels during the time of World War II.

The building on Ganging road was scheduled to be renovated but was rescued by the efforts of a historian called Su Whiling who highlighted the building’s history and the Chinese media supported him. He wanted to initiate a movement in order to put the suffering of those comfort women on spotlight but unfortunately, he was prohibited from publishing his research by the authorities when he first studied the matter in the 1990s.

The government of China has not fully addressed this human rights issue in order to preserve good relations with the Japanese. As compared to South Korea, China has certainly not done enough regarding this issue. Su alone raises funds for the 17 known survivors who were dishonored and boycotted and did not receive any kind of aid from the government.

It was in the 1990s that the Japanese government finally accepted that the comfort women system actually existed and thereafter it has apologized and offered these women compensation. Under the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the issue has received some attention according to the experts.

A “comfort station” located in Nanjing, 300 kilometers west of Shanghai was transformed into a museum and was inaugurated in December 2015. Su was even allowed to upgrade display of his records and findings into a museum which opened on his university campus in October. Just outside that building, a statue of two comfort women was unveiled. The statue represents Chinese and Korean comfort women. The documents on comfort women have been made available and there can be seen an international effort to include these findings in the UNESCO International Memory of The World Register.

Su, in his statement, said that the first ever comfort station in the world has not been fully protected and in order to avoid this regrettable situation, we need to work hard.

New Delhi, March 17, 2017: The long-awaited “Heritage Line” of Delhi Metro inched closer to being pressed into service, as the DMRC submitted papers to the safety department on Friday for approval — the last step before the metro becomes available to commuters.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) submitted papers for the line connecting ITO and Kashmere Gate (5.17 km) to the Commissioner for Metro Railway Safety (CMRS) and also to the Independent Safety Assessor (ISA) for certification, after which the line will be opened to the general public.

“The documents will be scrutinised by CMRS office and thereafter a CMRS inspection will be planned. The line will be opened for public after safety certification of signalling system by the ISA,” a statement issued by the transporter read.

A part of the Violet Line (ITO-Escorts Mujesar), the stretch was originally scheduled to be completed by December 2015 but missed several deadlines before its first trial-runs could be conducted in August last year.

“This was a challenging line from the very beginning. We had to execise extra caution during the construction because of the stretch being dotted with structures of historical value all along it. It also took us longer than usual time in getting clearance and securing landspace this time,” a DMRC official told IANS.